Grant Shapps ‘must act on embarrassing Hammersmith Bridge closure’ Ross Lydall The Government will come under pressure today to fund the reopening of Hammersmith Bridge as it was told the two-year closure had become an “international embarrassment”. London MPs are this evening expected to demand that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps honours a pledge from last September to “take control” of the project and reopen the 134-year-old bridge. Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney who secured the Commons debate, said: “It can’t be left to rot. It’s an international embarrassment.” It came as Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who appeared alongside Mr Shapps last September as they pledged to solve the bridge closure fiasco, said he would scrap the £1.55 fare to use a temporary ferry — that is due to start operating at the end of the summer — if elected to City Hall on May 6.